Jeb! Bush did not do well when CNN's Jake Tapper confronted him with a little tiny flaw in his logic, asking "how do you respond to critics who ask, if your brother and his administration bear no responsibility [for 9/11] at all, at all, how do you then make the jump that President Obama and Secretary Clinton are responsible for what happened at Benghazi?"
Let's go to the
transcript for Jeb's unabridged awkwardness:
BUSH:
Well, I -- it's -- the question on then Benghazi, which is -- hopefully we'll
now finally get the truth to, is, was that -- was the -- was the place secure?
They had a responsibility, the Department of State, to have proper security.
There
were calls for security. It looks like they didn't get it. And how was the
response in the aftermath of the attack? Was there a chance that these four
American lives could have been saved?
That's what the investigation is about.
It's not a political issue. It's not about the broad policy issue, is, were we
doing the job of protecting our embassies and our consulates, and during the
period, those hours after the attacks started, could they have been saved?
TAPPER: Well, that's -- that's kind of proving the point of the critics I was just asking about, because -- you don't want to have your brother bear responsibility for 9/11.
And
I understand that argument and al Qaeda is responsible. But why are the
terrorists not the ones who are responsible for these attacks in Libya?
BUSH:
They are. Of course they are. But -- of course they are. But if the ambassador
was asking for additional security and didn't get it, that's a proper point.
And if it's proven that the security was adequate compared to other embassies,
fine. We'll move on.
If
anything, all of the "Well, I—it's—the question on then Benghazi, which
is—hopefully we'll now finally get the truth" fumbling is worse on video
(which you can see below the fold). Ezra Klein describes it as
"almost physically painful to watch." Either that or you're breaking
out the popcorn and putting the video on a loop.
Because
Bush doesn't have a good answer to this question. In answer to any pre-existing
security concern on Benghazi to which the Obama administration did not respond
to Jeb! Bush's liking, there's that classic 2001 presidential daily briefing
titled ... what was that?
Oh,
right: "Bin Laden determined to strike in US." It seems like Jeb! has
pretended that away in his own mind, but in the real world, it's something he's
going to have to answer.
